Gold, Apple Inc. (AAPL) Boost Greenlight Capital’s August Returns

Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE) had a profitable August, according to data posted on the company’s website. The re-insurer run by David Einhorn was up 0.9 percent compared to the S&P 500 return of negative 3.1 percent for the month of August. Greenlight Capital is now up 11.7 percent for the year compared of approximately 15 percent. Although Einhorn is trailing the market, the performance is far better than most hedge funds this year. Many hedge funds are trailing the index by well over 1000 basis points.

According to Greenlight Capital RE’s website:

As of 31-August-2013, the largest disclosed long positions in our investment portfolio are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), gold, , gold, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) and Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS);and Vodafone Group Plc (NASDAQ:VOD) (LON:VOD); our investment portfolio is approximately 106% long and 76% short. This exposure analysis is calculated on a delta adjusted basis and excludes macro positions, which consist of gold, credit default swaps, sovereign debt, foreign currency positions, interest rate derivatives and others.

Einhorn was likely aided by returns from gold (up about 6.4 percent in the month), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) which was up close to 8 percent, and Vodafone Group Plc (NASDAQ:VOD) (LON:VOD), which returned over 8 percent for the month. The price of shares in the telecom giant soared amid reports of a deal with Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) to purchase the remaining 45 percent stake of Verizon wireless owned by Vodafone.

GM and Marvell were both down about 5 percent for the month.

The portfolio is largely unchanged except for OIS, which fell out of the top 5 holdings. There is no reason to believe that Einhorn sold shares of the company, as he noted in his Q2 letter to shareholders that the company was responding favorably to shareholder demands.

Shares of the oil and natural gas and coal company were down 8 percent for the month of August.

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